That was a pretty wacky weekend, huh?
A Saturday that started off with floundering Kentucky going to Knoxville and knocking off No. 5 Tennessee (much to the chagrin of those ready to call the Wildcats dead) began a cascade of ranked teams losing, with 11 in total falling—tying the record for the most in a single day. It’s like we got a little dose of March Madness two months ahead of schedule.
But taking a look at the newest bracket projection, it’s clear to see that a season’s worth of results matters much more than what happens in a single weekend; 46 of the 47 teams above the at-large cut line remained in the field from the last bracket, and only four teams were shuffled by two or more seed lines.
It’s a good lesson in staying grounded. While it’s easy to say, “Well, this team is in/out of the field” or “this team jumps/falls to this seed” with one small set of results, remember that the selection committee cares about what happened in November just as much as what happened two days ago. That’s why you need to take every result with a grain of salt—there’s uncertainty until we can get a full evaluation of the big picture.
Bracketology: making sense of the madness since 1995!
As for Bauertology, the biggest changes you’ll see below are some new faces in yellow, as projected automatic bids in a number of smaller conferences have been delegated to new standings leaders. One of those new leaders is Nevada (on top of the Mountain West after San Diego State’s loss to New Mexico), meaning the Wolf Pack possibly avoid a trip to the First Four for the time being. VCU is also the Atlantic 10’s new auto-bid after their wild comeback win against Dayton, and the 1 seeds may shudder in fear at the sight of which 16 seed now represents the America East…
So here it is, the new Bauertology for Jan. 16! Hope you enjoy, and as always, let me know if you have any questions or catch any errors!
THE BRACKET
THE TRUE SEED LIST, BUBBLE, AND BIDS BY CONFERENCE
